The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Petty Grifters Gone Big-Time

Posted on | December 19, 2010 | 4 Comments

Dan Collins calls attention to the fact that some charities aren’t all that charitable — that is to say, not a lot of what they collect goes to whatever cause it is they claim to support. Dan ends his post with a link to a truly horrifying story.

This is Edward Garcia Jr., 36, and his wife, Melissa Hope Garcia, 25, a couple of criminals from York, Pennsylvania, who made their way to Hollywood, California, where they were staying in a fleabag motel. According to police, the Garcias met up with a guy named Herbert Tracy White, who liked to help out people in need.

Apparently, White tried to help the Garcias — and they robbed him, killed him and dismembered his corpse.

It’s a depressingly familiar story: Small-time criminals often go along for years, doing various hustles, scams and ripoffs — a little dope-dealing here, a little burglary there, the occasional car theft or armed robbery. And then one day, they commit a heinous atrocity that makes front-page headlines. From In Cold Blood to Helter Skelter, from the two punks who killed Matthew Shepard to the weirdo who kidnapped Elizabeth Smart, the tale of the petty criminal who eventually makes the major leagues of serious, shocking crime is a very old one.

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